LiveAuctioneers

Liveauctioneers.com, online auction platform, advertised and promoted non existing auction house SMGR Concept and set up two consecutive auctions advertised as SMGR Concept in partnership with LiveAuctioneers on Dec 02 and Dec 03 2023, offering non existing goods solely on their platform, simultaneously providing and publishing fake address and non working contact details of the above mentioned. I suppose in this exact case Liveauctioneers did not comply with EU Omnibus regulation at least, which makes it compulsory for them to provide additional data while dealing with EU companies or customers. Not to speak of money laundering assisting etc. I participated in both auctions and won several lots. Next day 2 emails from Liveauctioneers followed with invoices, payment instructions and bank details for respective bank transfers as bank transfer was the only form of payment offered. I proceeded with payments. Got respective confirmations in writing from Liveauctioneers website stating the Auction house did receive both my payments. The last email on behalf of this non existing auction house was on Dec 13, afterwards just silence. Lots were not shipped. Email address does not exist. Phone number blocked. I lost over 10 000 usd. My bank can’t recall it, dispute or start a chargeback as it was not a card payment, but a bank transfer from my account to bank account of auction house, provided in Liveauctioneers email. Liveauctioneers are not going to help to recover my money, refuse to give me any info on the above mentioned auction house for me to be able to file a complaint in French court. All they did was temporary blocking this auction house profile on their site not to start one more auction now. And me loosing 10k USD is totally ok with them. No info, no investigation, no compensation, nothing.
I filled a complain in police but doubt it would help

I have dealt with many auction houses and can spot a bogus scam pretty quick. Does the same item appear over and over again and go for the same price auction after auction? Is the item really just product that didn't move in a store and this is a way to unload at inflated prices?
Are the estimates unreasonable. Most items can be searched on line Do your homework! Be very Leary of sending a money transfer. There is no recourse to recoup those funds! Don't expect live auctioneer to help you out, LiveAuctioneers are there only to manage the web sight and collect their fee. ONLY. Review the specific auction house reviews. I got burned by on that said the item was gold. It was only gold plate. The auction house replied that if it was gold they would say solid gold. Unethical, i would say. Buyer beware. If there is a question e-mail the auction house and get an e-mail response to back up your claim.

You can't trust the auctioneers or the reviews on this website, because the company allows them to engage in Review Manipulation and Feedback Extortion. You don't know if you are getting an honest auction house or a shady one. I ended up with two bad ones all in one week, and it was like pulling teeth to get any assistance. One of the auctioneers has been threatening me, stalking me, and took my private information and published it online outside of the website without my consent to retaliate for leaving him a bad review. I called, I sent them screenshots, I demanded and begged them for help, and LiveAuctioneers gave me a cold shoulder. I couldn't even get a response from them. Shocked and disgusted at the utter callousness of the LiveAuctioneers staff. They shelter shady auction houses who misuse and abuse your private information, who engage in questionable business practice on their site with impunity. I've been cyber-bullied by an auction house on their website "Lot14 Auctions", and when I complained about it instead of helping me they deleted my account and scapegoated my threat of a lawsuit against the auctioneer who was causing this. They shamefully told me I was "threatening" but my threat was that I would sue the auction for harassment and violating my privacy, which I have every right to do. It was the auction who sent me extortion emails and threats- very specific threats designed to get me to shut up about my bad experience there. The auctioneer threatened to wreck the business where I work if I didn't withdraw negative feedback for his business. LiveAuctioneers turned a blind eye to the auctioneer threatening the consumer, but if the customer responds to that by saying they will sue if he doesn't stop it, LA thinks the customer is "threatening". It's not only unethical- THIS IS ILLEGAL. IT'S FEEDBACK EXTORTION. All of the other websites have policies to protect consumers from this, but LA doesn't apparently. They let him get away with it. I sent them screen shots and they did nothing. Their staff told me the auctioneers were "vetted" but here is an auctioneer stalking me online, harassing me, following me to my workplace and trying to embarrass me to friends, coworkers, clients and customers of other businesses, telling strangers about my shopping habits. Does that sound like a "vetted" auctioneer to you? ANYONE would have threatened that auctionhouse with a lawsuit under those circumstances, and that I had an outburst at him with a couple of swear words is a big SO WHAT. They care more about their sensitive ears than the unethical and illegal business practices of the auction houses who sell there. They also told me my language violated their harassment policy, but they will not show anyone the actual policy. What kind of harassment policy covers swear words but does not protect the consumer from actual real-life harassment from the auctioneer? And then there's the other auction house who gave me damaged goods I had to leverage a creditcard chargeback to get a refund. There is a "dispute" process if you don't pay, but there is NO reporting mechanism for recourse against auctioneers who are engaging in far worse behavior than a couple of swear words. The website tells you to report policy violations or problems, but there is little to no actual way for consumers to do that. It also says they take your privacy seriously, but they didn't care about mine at all. Their "bidder support" phone number is ONE person's voicemail, and they never call back. If you get an email response in 3 days, it's lucky. I was left feeling as if I was forced to accept the damaged goods, because they can "dispute" it and keep me from bidding on other auctions. Or the auctioneer can just find your workplace and embarrass you into doing whatever they want. Consumers are defenseless, and the company lets them do it. There is a corporate culture of anti-buyer and pro-seller. Then on top of that, I kept telling them the whole time that auctioneer had never disputed the invoice, and it never said that on my account- I have pictures of this. It actually said "paid after 51 days and no disputes were filed" and then later AFTER "suspending" my bidding priveleges, they changed it to "past due, in dispute" but they claim they are not covering anything up... yeah right. They can't even get that right. And they don't think after all that a customer might just get so aggravated as to utter a couple of slurs? And that's grounds for suspension, but the auctioneer stalking you, actually threatening you with illegal behavior and illegally sharing your private information is not? What planet are these people on?!

Beware. Liveauctioneers "top rated" ranking of an auction house is almost worthless. An auction could have over 15% negative commentaries from customers (often remarkably negative experiences or unethical, unprofessional, incompetent or amateurish practices) and still be "top ranked". We have had several such bad experiences with a variety of auctions that are supposedly "top". We will not repeat business with such auctions. READ all the one, two and three star commentaries before doing business -- and realize there are undoubtedly many MORE disappointed or angry customers who did not take the time to report their bad experiences. We continue to do business with auctions who act ethically and professionally; there is no shortage of offerings for one to spend money and acquire fine items -- just do it only with those who earn trust.

I bid on live auctioneers for a 10 carat diamond tennis necklace 18 karat white gold, the next day I received an invoice from the owner's brother Joshua Kodner of $ 6500, 00 I paid it with my credit card and LiveAuctioneers shipped me a coin bag full of papers clips instead of my necklace. If anyone else has had a similar issue, please contact the
Broward County sheriff's office in Florida@ *******138 please help us to put this individual in jail thanks...

This site is really interesting for the kind of things I like to buy but when you won something and the seller remove your bid for any reason, I think, you LiveAuctioneers, you can't let him to do that because that's not fair for someone like me ( the buyer) who spend time to bid and receive this behaviour from the seller. Not admissible, not at all! I got this bad experience on your site and you never fight and take the position to defending my (Rights). That's still in my mind about Black RiverAuctions for two aquarelles!

IN 2015 I BOUGHT A VASE FROM THE WEBSITE LIVEAUCTIONEERS.COM WHO ARE A PLATFORM FOR MANY AUCTIONEERS SOME HONEST AND SOME DISHONEST.

I WAS RIPPED OFF BY DynastyArt FROM CANADA AND PROMOTE THEM SELF ON LIVEAUCTIONEERS.COM I MADE A FORMAL COMPLAINT TO THE LIVEAUCTIONEERS COMPANY WHO DIDN'T WANT TO KNOW ABOUT IT, THERE REPLY IN SHORT WAS WE ONLY ACT AS A PLATFORM FOR AUCTIONEERS.

THE DYNASTYART SCUMBAGS RIPPED ME OFF FOR AROUND $1000 AUD WITH NO RECOURSE FOR ME, SO NOW I'M TAKING TO ONLINE PLATFORMS TO WORN PEOPLE ABOUT DYNASTYART AUCTIONEERS WHO HUNT UNSUSPECTING CLIENTS VIA LIVEAUCTIONEERS CANADA.

Lester

Decided to try out online auctions, really wish I hadn't. Perfect storm of disappointment, security compromises & general awfulness.
Bid on an item. Rejected by vendor. Messaged them to ask why, LiveAuctioneers rescinded my rejection - I got no notification so I won the item (yay) but didn't know it. Finally realized it & tried to figure out how to get it shipped, they kept forgetting about me, never sent me item information, had to keep emailing them for status updates. Item never arrived. I never got it. So wasted $54 on my item & $32 on shipping for absolutely nothing.
Icing on the cake - few days ago I got massively hacked. Subscription bombed, 'brushing' scam from Amazon & 2 of my credit cards compromised 4 days before Christmas. Froze my credit and re-issued all my credit cards, which has made Christmas shopping really fun. Just finished a security scan from experian. Only recent hack on my record? Liveactioneers.com. Received no security warnings from them about the hack.
The worst part of all of this is that absolutely nobody can be held responsible. Merry Christmas.

Overall, I'm pleased with the various vendors, but some are better than others. As to the site itself, I would like to see a more focused search engine. For example, I'm interested in the artist "Richard Hunt," but I get notices not only about him but also any item described has having anything to do with "hunting," which is annoying and time consuming. Similarly for works by "William Jacobs," I get notifications for anything dealing with "William" or for "Jacobs," both names that cover a lot of ground in which I am not interested. I've won some really nice works via LiveAuctioneers, but one needs to be careful and read everything closely, especially each time you deal with a new vendor.

These fools do not back the us, the client one bit. LiveAuctioneers never answer the phone. I've been sold a fake Cartier by Morphy Auction house and Liveauctioneers could do nothing for me. A dispute was put on my account because I bid on an 8K rolex and when I found out the item wasn't in the states but China I refused to be bilked out of my money by purchasing another fake watch. Liveauctioneers is useless when it comes to standing by their client or protecting them.

The website had me bidding against myself so that I paid more than I had to for the items. It told me I was the only bidder, yet it kept raising the bid. When I emailed the auction house, LiveAuctioneers told me it was Live Auctioneers fault and that while they sympathized with my plight, they could not fix the problem. I than emailed LiveAuctioneers several times, explaining the problem, and I even answered a pro forma email that I received from them asking what I thought, and I again explained the problem to them. They never even gave me the courtesy of a reply. I had to pay the higher price to obtain the item.

Like the old AT&T, live Auctioneers doesn't care because LiveAuctioneers don't have to. I found something I really wanted, bid way early, continually got notices that I was the highest bidder at Nadeau Auctions. As i watched my highest bid get placed, which I offered two weeks early, someone "on the floor" bid the SAME amount and for some reason (undeclared reserve?) they got the item, live bidding was shut down before I could offer more (which I would have, lots more). I did contact both live Auctioneers and Nadeau and their excuse was that it's up to the auctioneer to pick the bid. So their advice to bid early and high is meaningless and there is no action to be taken. I've contacted my States Attorney General's fraud department, we'll see how this plays out. My advice, bid directly with the auction house, don't use the live Auctioneer platform, they are just there to obey the auction house, not advocate for you

I am in the industry and use the site often. I have contacted LiveAuctioneers multiple times regarding the blatant selling of fake items and about "auctioneers" hosting auctions that aren't really legitimate. Some of these companies exclusively sell fakes or post egregiously high estimates and run up bidding phishing for a legitimate bid. LiveAuctioneers will politely respond but turn a blind eye. LiveAuctioneers are losing reputable companies and becoming dominated by fakers.

No vetting of the Auction Houses LiveAuctioneers allow to sell, Obvious Fakes being sold from Scam Auction Houses, with no employees listed or any physical address. CEO Phil Michaelson an obvious hypocrite look at his twitter page love the retweeted quote about "Honesty" All the while his business is trolling for new buyers for his auctions houses to rip them off. Phil is this what they teach you at Harvard (ethics 101 haha), how unethical can these auction platforms be allowing this to go on? They make a percent off every bid that goes through them, good luck trying to recover your money when you buy a FAKE ITEM. If your going to buy something at an auction do not expect it to be authentic huge majority is not, its the 3rd largest scam out there and if you do go direct through the auction house not a platform, If the house does not have a physical address, name of persons working there, and only takes debit, cash or wire transfer, run away. Auction Platforms should be held accountable and there should be laws protecting consumers from the fraud they engage in, Where are all the Harvard Lawyers dealing with consumer law and protection?

Love this site! I've been using LiveAuctioneers site for several months and have found a number of good auction houses that do a great job... and a few auction houses that are rip offs. Do your research on the individual auction house first. LiveAuctioneers is an awesome website and app that lets you attend auctions online all around the world. Most of the negative ratings here are about problems the individual auction houses, not the website. Buyer beware!

I have been with Liveauctions for a few months now... its been mostly a pleasant experience... especially with Bk auctions, absolutely fabulous customer service and shipping times, I buy with four other auctions on this site and shipping time is very slow although I pay the invoice as soon as I receive it, not gonna down anyone or mention any names, you know who you are... thank you Bk auctions, excellent service so far... and to liveauctions in general, please safeguard our personal information as hackers are getting smarter as we speak...
Thank you
Best regards
Millard Ellis

I bid two items, a group Baccarat glasses and a group of plates. According to their suggestion, I bid with high maximum prices for each item to win.
However, i was notified by this Auction house that I lost both items at a lot lower prices despite the my maximum bidding price way exceeding the sold price!
When I wanted to contact them about this issue, their website is totally devoid of customer service email nor its phone number. I have suspicion that LiveAuctioneers presell or pre arrange hot items to just collect the viewers. Im glad this site to vent.

I bidded on a " 14kt White Gold Womens Round Yellow Diamond Cluster Ring". I bidded at $500 and it said I was winning. The auction either than stood still or froze for over 5 minutes with it still saying I was winning. When it unfroze it said my bid was at $880 and that I won. Shortly after I received an email from Battery Daddy stating " Thank you for your recent Battery Daddy order {OrderID. Cust-ref}. Due to overwhelming demand your Battery Daddy is on back order." This auction site seems very shady.

It's always difficult to trust online transactions for expensive items like buying antiques on live auctioneers, but the reality is that this platform works really well. Only once, when I was a novice, did I miss an item due to a technical glitch on the app. Sellers are quite responsible and described and photograph items well. The rating systems for sellers helps identify if you need to use extra caution when bidding at a particular auction. Overall I've been very pleased with LiveAuctioneers, more so than with the other popular bidding platform online.

Live Auctioneers allows art dealers/auction houses to sell paintings with the flimsiest of provenance to inhabit their website and hold auctions. I have had two issues with them in the last four years. In fact, each time I have dealt with L. A., there has been a problem. I would not use their service. I would strongly suggest working with the auction houses directly, and you will (as a bonus) typically pay a lower premium. But you can also have a better sense of where the art comes from. If you want a third party platform, use Invaluable.

I spend a great deal of time looking on live auctioneers and buying on this platform. Never before have we had such a large selection of product to choose from. With that being said, Every new auction house that I buy from is a whole new challenge to get it shipped payed for getting questions answered, trying to get someone on the phone or to return a phone call! Then you get the one that's short tempered and thinks everything can be solved with an email! I'm sorry but being in my 70s I'm not as tec saey as a twenty year old, I can guarantee you I spend more money on live auctioneers then a twenty year old! I've been treated so badly with some of these houses I will never give them anymore of my hard earned money again. Now I have to say I have some wonderful people at some of these houses that have been wonderful to deal with. I think it gets down to respecting the fact it my money I'm spending with them, I can go elsewhere and have. I would like to see a more uniformed approach through the whole system.

I won a lamp for 10.00 and after having to chase them down to find out what was going on after I paid teh 10.00 lamp became a 100.00 lamp with extra fees, taxes, shipping etc. I sell on Ebay all the time and if I sold someone something for 10.00 then charged them 100.00 Id be kicked off. Its all BS. Dont waste your time. Also, I won only 2 auctions after placing like 70 bids. I think if the amount is too low LiveAuctioneers bid themselves last minute so they dont have to sell the item at such a low price. Also I won one other auction and they said I didnt pay within thier time limit (a few days) so they cancelled the order and Im still trying to get my money back. The auction house blames the seller the seller blames the auction house and you get screwed.

Attention to the client varies from place to place. A good percentage of places are very obliging, very professional, very easy to deal with. Others somewhat less. Some have more restrictive ways of paying for acquisitions. Some have shipping capabilities which helps immensely. Some do not and some of the recommended third party shippers live a bit to be desired. Claims to shippers for damaged goods are very trying. For a Canadian it is rather expensive to acquire items from Live Auctioneers, because price, plus auctioneer's take, plus transportation, not very good currency exchange, very expensive shipping fees, import duties, brokerage fees, etc, make it almost prohibitively expensive. Additionally one has to be very familiar with the item because the description and pictures may exceed the actual quality of the item, if one wasn't familiar with it.

Steals your money when vendors don't provide the goods! Purchased several items at several different auctions from the same auctioneer, and auctioneer "could not find" most of the items. Requested my money back from Liveauctioneers and LiveAuctioneers acknowledged my request but did not refund me. Continued to remind them they owed my money and they then just went to ignoring me. This was the Liveauctioneers customer service that did this. How blatant of a rip off is this! Do NOT trust them!

LiveAuctioneers do cover a lot of good secondary auction houses, but people need to be very very careful. There are many auction houses that do nothing but sell forgeries, and liveauctioneers does nothing to remove them or warn customers. Several people have posted lists of many of these fraudulent auction houses online. Users of this site, do you own very careful due diligence. Advise to liveauctioneers, clean up your site and get rid of these fraudulent companies. The are destroying your reputation. I now do 90% of my online bidding from a different site which provides some oversight of their auctions and reduces the risk of forgeries and frauds. You've lost most of my business.

I had been looking for a certain set of model kits for a while before I came across LiveAuctioneers. I simply set a search reminder in the system and before long LiveAuctioneers notified me of items available meeting my search criteria. Straight forward registration for the auction and speedy response to any queries including overseas shipping etc.
First online auction experience and a smooth and pleasant one with great outcome.

Liveauctions can't be blamed 100%, but LiveAuctioneers can possibly do a better vetting process in the auctions houses listing on their site. Some auctions may be legit; however, unsure how an auction house would be able to auction off an item on the same day I purchased the exact SAME item from a reputable collectible online site. Do your research on the auction house. Buyer beware. Due your due diligence. Read the reviews. Research the auction house.

I tried to register for an auction, the pop up window did not allow me to fill in any information. I closed the window to try again and it said my registration was pending! I hadn't filled out my name or any credit information! The auction house couldn't help me, there are no good phone numbers to actually speak with any. LiveAuctioneers didn't return any calls and did not respond to my email inquiries with any help.

I had to use a different email to register so I could bid.

Horrible service!

I am a federal firearms license holder, a guy had me transfer a gun he won in auction from Kraftauctions through Liveauctioneers.com. Kraftauctions sent me the wrong gun. I call them and was told to ship it back & LiveAuctioneers will pay me! I sent them the receipt & they didn't even acknowledge receiving it. No reimbursement, ripped off! Then I informed Liveauctioneers.com & they said they would help but did nothing. Probably great to those who never had a problem but I can't trust them because I can't trust their sellers or their ability to make them come clean

I found out about Liveauctioneers.com 30 days ago. Not being a bidder before or ever visiting an action, both on the internet or in person, the first experience I had was amazing. I was able to do a lot of research as the necessary details were right at my fingertips. I was able to upload my biddings online as well. The robust online portal offered me many different characteristics. Eamples would be to receive the lowest price that is close to my bidding parameters.This was helpful especially during this Covid-19 pandemic where people were requested not to attend gatherings and meet up in person so through Liveauctioneers, we are able to comfortably do it at our houses. My first auction which was on Sunday, was actually done on my family's boat as I was on Lake Travis in Austin with my family. The service I received after winning bids in terms of the shipping, follow-up, the delivery and customer assistance was incredible. This company has created a unique and new method to motivate people to attend auctions. Wonderful!!!!